444 
Progress  in  Pharmacy. 
( Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\  September,  1908. 
Pharmaceutical  Chemical  Section  in  the  German  Chemical  Society. — 
At  the  meeting  of  the  German  Chemical  Society,  held  in  Jena,  June 
io  to  12,  1908,  a  section  for  Medico-pharmaceutical  Chemistry  was 
formed,  with  Professor  Thorns,  Berlin,  as  chairman. 
The  section  began  with  a  membership  of  100,  of  which  number 
no  less  than  twenty-five  are  residents  of  the  United  States. 
The  first  chairman  of  the  section  is  well  and  favorably  known  in 
this  country.  He  is  the  Director  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Institute  of 
the  University  of  Berlin,  Germany,  is  a  corresponding  member  of 
the  Council  on  Pharmacy  and  Chemistry  of  the  American  Medical 
Association  and  holds  honorary  membership  in  a  number  of  Ameri- 
can pharmaceutical  societies  and  associations. 
British  Pharmacopoeia  Revision. — The  Therapeutic  Committee  of 
the  British  Medical  Association  has  spent  much  time  on  the  discus- 
sion of  substances  and  preparations  which  it  is  desirable  to  omit 
from  and  those  which  it  is  desirable  to  add  to  the  coming  edition  of 
the  British  Pharmacopoeia. 
The  principles  which  have  been  adoped  as  a  guide  for  this  com- 
mittee are  rather  comprehensive,  and,  in  view  of  the  approaching 
revision  of  our  own  Pharmacopoeia  of  the  United  States,  may  prove 
to  be  doubly  interesting. 
They  include  : 
The  deletion  of  practically  all  drugs  that  are  fully  represented  by 
an  active  ingredient. 
The  deletion  of  drugs  possessing  no  obvious  or  serviceable  action. 
The  avoidance  of  duplication  in  the  preparations  of  a  drug. 
The  omission  of  all  purely  diluent  preparations. 
The  omission  of  all  articles  that  do  not  require  official  definition. 
The  elimination  from  the  body  of  the  book  of  articles  that  are 
not  contained  in  finished  products. 
A  list  containing  the  drugs  and  preparations  which  the  committee 
thinks  might  be  omitted  from  or  added  to  the  Pharmacopoeia  has 
been  transmitted  to  the  General  Medical  Council.  (The  Chem.  and 
Drug.,  May  30,  1908,  page  835.) 
The  British  Pharmaceutical  Codex.  This  book,  but  recently 
reviewed  in  these  pages,  is  already  out  of  print.  A  second  edition 
is  in  course  of  preparation  and  the  opportunity  is  being  taken 
advantage  of  to  add  a  considerable  number  of  formulas  and  to 
revise  some  of  the  monographs  in  the  present  first  edition. 
